Form revised April 10, 2006

FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

Department:	Contact Person/Phone:	DOF Analyst/Phone:
Legislative	Carol Butler 684-3580

Legislation Title: An ordinance relating to the creation of a City Light Department Rates Advisory Committee; establishing a Rates Advisory Committee and the composition of its membership; and describing the mission and responsibilities of the Rates Advisory Committee.

· Summary of the Legislation:  This ordinance establishes a Rates Advisory Committee consisting of fifteen members, eight to be appointed by the Mayor and seven by the City Council with all appointments to be confirmed by the City Council.  The fifteen members will serve four year terms, except that four of those appointed by the Mayor and three of those appointed by the City Council will serve two year terms in order to ensure that not terms end at the same time. 

The Mayor will appoint one representative from each from the residential, small business, medium non-network, medium network, large non-network, large network, high demand, and contract cities rate classes.  The City Council will appoint seven at-large members, at least one of which shall be from the residential class and another from either a suburban city or Tukwila.

Unlike the City Light Citizens’ Advisory Committee which will focus on wider policy issues, the Rates Advisory Committee will focus on issues directly related to rate proposals as they are being developed by the City Light Department and presented to the Mayor and to the City Council. 

In addition to any specific recommendations relating to rate issues, the Rates Advisory Committee will file an annual report and will determine the frequency with which the members should meet.

· Background: (Include brief description of the purpose and context of legislation and include record of previous legislation and funding history, if applicable):

A Rates Advisory Committee has a long history in the City of Seattle relating to participation in City Light rate proposals, both while the proposal is under development and after submission to the City Council.  For most of those years, members of the Rates Advisory Committee were appointed by both the Mayor and the City Council.  These appointments also reflected City Council policy direction as expressed in multiple rate resolutions adopted over a more than twenty-year period.  In the latest review of a City Light rate proposal, however, the Rates Advisory Committee was appointed solely by the Mayor and disbanded by the Superintendent almost one year before the submission the rate proposal. This occurred despite the City Council’s continued policy support for a Rates Advisory Committee as stated in Resolution 30685.

Though City Light did conduct a public participation process before presenting the 2007-2008 Mayor’s Rate Proposal, this process did not include reconstituting a Rates Advisory Committee as requested.  Nevertheless, to help inform issues for a future rate proposal the City Council once again included language supporting use of the Rates Advisory Committee in Resolution 30933 adopted on November 20, 2006. To ensure that this will occur, this legislation creates a Rates Advisory Committee to implement the City Council’s policy direction.

· Please check one of the following:

__x__ This legislation does not have any financial implications. (Stop here and delete the remainder of this document prior to saving and printing.)  Note that here may be minor costs associated with this legislation related to validating parking for members of the committee and providing drinks and snacks for the meetings.